Abstract
The need for virgin base oil is reduced and other resources are conserved during the refining of used, spent, or waste oils to make new lubricating oil. It is important to collect and recycle spent lubricating oil in order to protect the environment and natural resources. Although the lubricating oil itself remains unchanged after use, it becomes contaminated with combustion byproducts, deteriorated additives, water, and various dust particles during its time in the engine. The purpose of re-cycling is to eliminate degraded additives and impurities while restoring the oil's qualities to those specified by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Therefore, this study focuses on the extraction of engine oils utilizing a single solvent approach for re-cycling. The N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone was used as the solvent. The used oil was gathered from vehicle repair stations. After being allowed for settling to removing large suspended particles, the oil was subjected to a sequence of physical treatment processes. The solvent recovery process was carried out by using rotary evaporator equipment with a vacuum pump. The engine oil obtained at the end of the process is a base oil ready to be used again after addition of the proper additives. Eventually, the characteristics of the recycled oil were established and evaluated against the standards set forth by the Society of Automotive Engineers. According to the study, 10 litres of lubricating oil could be produced from 25 litres of used oil when it was recycled properly, as opposed to 220 litres of crude oil, which would be needed to make the same amount of oil.